I was wondering if there were any tools or programs out there that might make for easier and more flexible word balloon creation. Right now Dawn (my wife and artist) uses Photoshop to create and color the art, then I add lettering, there's this trial and error process of trying to create properly sized and oriented ovals and stems, where if it doesn't turn out right Dawn has to delete/undo and try again.

It can be frustrating for her, particularly if we decide on any last-minute changes. She knows Photoshop far better than I do so I'm taking her word for it that this is as good a method as it gets, but I'm wondering if any of you have ideas or suggestions. If it's a third-party program, preferably something free that accepts PSDs (though I'm not sure if Adobe frowns on that), but if it'll truly help our process I might crack open the piggy bank._________________

Interesting that you consider the font size so huge, since it's an absolute mandate from the artist that we never go smaller than the size we have except for certain special circumstances (whispers, etc.). I think it's so it shows up well in feeds and mobile devices, but regardless she put her foot down a long time ago as Supreme Dictator of Visual Judgment on the topic. Even on those occasions when I've tried to sneak it down to 10 point instead of 11 point to squeeze in more of my lofty phrasings, she's noticed

So that part of the equation ain't gonna change anytime soon, but I do appreciate the feedback, regardless._________________

Yeah, I was reading some font article yesterday mentioning that at Marvel they use some version of Illustrator for the lettering--and presumably for the balloons as well. It does seem like something vectors are pretty much made to order for.

Really? I hate drawing speech bubbles! Possibly that's b/c I'm terrible at it and I'm never quite happy with how they look. But then, I probably hate it less than I would doing them on the computer..._________________

Rounded rectangles always looked OK to me, and are probably the simplest to create which is a point in their favor, but maybe they're not bubble-y enough for other comic makers. I use ellipses in one of my comics because it suits the fantasy genre (other comics are Sci-Fi). But Paint.NET also has a Speech Bubble option under Effects > Text Formations (a free add-on, available via the Paint.NET forums) which could be worth a try. You can either input text when creating the bubble, or you can make a blank bubble around text you've typed in another layer. The tail can also be added while creating the bubble, or you can select "none" and add a tail manually.

Added: a little step-by-step guide I did, using Paint.NET. The same options are probably found in Photoshop, etc._________________

Last edited by dpat57 on Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:08 pm; edited 1 time in total

I work in photoshop and I usually enter my text first and then place a layer for bubbles underneath the text layers. That way i dont have to squeeze words into the bubble i wrap the bubble around the words